Audience members at Friday night’s ComCo show were treated to an improv show with live music and a guest appearance by former ComCo member, Guy Madjar. Guy graduated in December but was back in town during this show. The performance began with every member dancing together in a surprisingly together opening number. With the unique addition of music they created a fun filled musical improv show, with members singing song lyrics, in unison, as easily as they would say them.
After the opening, the show proceeded with a number of short form comedy games. One of my favorites was where one player, Michael Duczynski, left the room. The remaining actors took suggestions from the audience on how he got to work, what problem he encountered, and how he overcame that problem. Then the absent player was called back into the room and had to explain to his boss why he was late to work, as the other players acted it out for him. He had ridden a subway sandwich to work; that one was more complicated for the obvious reason that it was a subway BUT he had to also mention that it was a sandwich part. The problem he faced was intoxication and he overcame it by meeting Christ, both of which he succeeded in getting fairly quickly. That one is one of my favorites simply because of how much fun it is to watch the actors pantomiming the clues and having to get creative when wasn’t immediately obvious.
Perhaps the only moment where the show lagged a little was the game where they were putting on a movie and then kept changing the genre of the film; on Friday, genres ranged from Westerns to a National Geographic documentary. Despite a good title, “My wife left me”, it just didn’t pick up steam.
The rebound was quick though as the next two games were called “Sing it” and “Bucket of Death”. “Sing It” took place in Hell, per an audience suggestion, and whenever the keyboardist started playing a song, the person who had been talking had to start singing. It went over really well and both Kelsey Fox and Maya Crosman were not afraid to belt it out! The “Bucket of Death” game was met with some whispers from the audience- A ComCo actor holds their breath while putting their face in a bucket of water and then hits the table when they next to be relieved, and another actor takes their place, all the while trying to perform one continuous scene. Despite the audiences hesitation it was a huge success, especially when Adam Konig came back from his turn in the Bucket of Death with a really spectacular head swish which sprayed an impressive amount of water across the stage. And then he tried to pass off the fact that his head was dripping wet from nerves about the exam they were supposed to be taking.
Before closing with ComCo’s traditional games “World’s Worst” and “Innuendo”, which are always a crowd favorite and didn’t disappoint, they played one of their long form games. What in past shows has been a book, narrated by the author Kelsey Fox, while the other players act it out, was instead a failed Musical! Entitled Sauna from an audience member’s suggestion, it was original, hilarious, bizarre, and overall put on with the usual ComCo flare. Having seen previous ComCo shows, Friday night’s was one of their best most innovative performances.
Here are some highlights from Sauna: The Musical!, probably not coming to a theater near you (apologies for the my amateur photography skills)
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